Improvement in compound and ornamental lumber



C. F. RITCHEL.

COMPOUND AND ORNAMENTAL LUMBER.

No. 193,333. Patente Au 7,1877.

UNITED STATES Ere CHARLES F. RITCHEL, OF COREY, PENNSYLVANIA.

IMPROVEMENT IN COMPOUND AND ORNAMENTAL LUMBER.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. [93,833, dated August 7, 1877; application filed November 20, 1876.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES F. RITOHEL, of Corry, in the county of Erie and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Compound and Ornamental Lumber; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description thereof.

My invention relates to the construction of ornamental lumber.

It consists in preparing lumber in such a manner that when put together it will produce an ormental efi'ect. v

The preparation of lumber so as to give this ornamental effect consists inso dressing the same that the joining edges shall be in dented so as to give the effect of wavy or serpentine lines running across the surface of the material when in position upon the Wall, floor, or other place.

Lumber thus dressed is intended more pargcularly for wainscoting, flooring, table-tops,

My invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing, as follows: 7

Figure l is a strip of flooring or other material, prepared according to my plan, for producing an ornamental effect in flooring, wain scoting, table-tops, &c. Fig. 2 shows a section of flooring or wainscoting composed of does not differ from ordinarily -constructed lumber for such purposes, except that the joining edges are made indented or curved, in place of being straight.

The effect produced by this mode or form of constructing or preparing such material is to give the surface of the door, or Wainscoting, or table-top, or other article, a hi ghly-ornamental appearance.

The form of the waves or curves can be va ried almost indefinitely, thus giving a variety of patterns and further variety can be effected by the variatiou'in width of the stud.

The'indentures on the edges of the stuff do not usually exceed a quarter of an inch in depth, and thus very little material is wasted.

In flooring or wainscoting the stuff is tongued and grooved the same as ordinarily; and for furniture and other uses it may be put up with a glue-joint, as usual. In either case, and more especially, perhaps, when a glue-joint is used, the Work is much stronger, as there is more attaching-surface in a given length of joint, and as the strain cannot come lengthwise of the whole joint, as it can when the joint isstraight.

This feature is of great benefit in making thin compound work, as, for example, paneling, or light tables, such as folding sewingtables, now so commonly in use, or chair-bottoms, or any article where strength, without excess of material,'is desired.

' I am aware that compound lumber has been made by gluing various layers of veneers together, which layers have been crimped, and which material, when thus compounded, has on its edge when planed off the effect of wavy lines; but this is not the same as my invention, nor could it be used as my invention is intended to be used.

I do not claim as my invention lumber made ornamental by being made up of layers of different colored woods. My invention consists entirely in so dressing or shaping the joining edges of matched or tongued and grooved material-such, for example, as flooring-strips or wainscoting-stripsthat when said strips are joined or matched together and in place there will be wavy or serpentine lines across the surface of the wall, floor, or article, as seen in Fig. 1; therefore What I claim as my invention isl. Ornamental lumber for flooring, Wain scoting, table-tops, or other articles composed of strips of like or different Woods, whose joining edges are indented or wavy, substantially as described and shown, and for the 

